Ice-clearing and contact wheel for electric railways.



F. E. KINSMAN. IGE' CLEARING AND CONTACT WHEEL FOR ELEGTBIG RAILWAYS.

APPLICATION FILED MAY-.1, 1905.

' Patented Apr. 6, 1909.

' INVENTOR I) m i'zl ATTORNEYS 7/ :I "an i WITNESSES FRANK E. KINSMAN,OF PLAINFIELD, NEW JERSEY.

ICE-CLEARING AND CONTACT WHEEL FOR ELECTRIC RAILWAYS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented April 6, 1909.

Application filed March 1, 1905. Serial No. 247,980.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, FRANK E. KINSMAN, a citizen of the United States ofAmerica, re. siding in the city of Plainfield, in the county of Union,State of New Jersey, have invented an Improved Ice-Clearing and ContactWheel for Electric Railways, of which the following is a specification.

One of the main objects of my invention is to provide an electricrailway system with an eflicient means for clearing the third or contact rail of ice and sleet in winter. I prefer to so construct suchmeans that they may serve also as an electric contact device to supplycurrent to the motors and other translating devices on the cars from therail. This object I attain by providing the car with a wheel having abearing face to bear upon the third rail. With this, I prefer to combinemeans to retard or otherwise modify the natural rotation of the wheelcaused by contact of the latter with the rail, so as to secure ascraping contact, either for ice-clearing or contact purposes, or both.

In the accompanying drawings Figure 1 is a side elevation of part of acar provided with my improvement; Fig. 2 is a cross-section; Fig. 3 is across-section to a larger scale through the contact wheel; Fig. 4 is aside elevation of the same; Fig. 5 is an edge view of a modified form ofcutting wheel; and Fig. 6 is a side view of another modified form ofwheel.

Referring to Figs. 1 and 2, A indicates the body of the car and Bindicates the third rail, by which current is to be supplied to themotors and other translating devices on the cars.

I suitably mount upon a bracket, such as D on the car (Figs. 1 and 2), awheel C in such a position that it may travel in contact with andthereby rotate 0n the surface of the third rail B. The periphery orbearing surface of this wheel is preferably convex or rounded incross-section, as indicated in Figs. 2 and 3, so that as the crown ofthe face bears upon the rail with a suitable pressure, ice or sleetwhich has formed upon the surface of the rail will be cut by a crushing,cracking, or splitting action, and be thereby broken off. To make thisaction more effective, however, I rovide means whereby the rotation ofthe wheel ma be retarded, or, if found desirable, may be whollyprevented. For this purpose, I prefer to provide a brake shoe S withfluid pressure, electromagnetic or other means under the control of theengineer to cause the shoe to bear upon the wheel (axle, side face, orperiphery) with any desired pressure. By preference I mount the brakeshoe to bear upon the periphery of the wheel diametrically opposite thepoint at which the wheel bears upon the rail, as shown. In the pres entinstance, I have shown the shoe as acted upon by the piston rod 1) of apiston in a cylinder P carried by the car, there being a system of ipesP -leading to a valve E under the contrdl of the engineer, who cansupply air or other suitable fluid pressure to act upon the piston inthe cylinder P and so apply the brake shoe S to the Wheel C. W hen thebrake shoe is thus applied to the wheel so as to retard the rotation ofthe wheel, caused by the contact of the wheel path the rail, the effectwill be not only to cut and break the ice or sleet on the rail, but alsosurely to brush it off. A spring, as indicated at S by dotted lines inFig. 3, may be used to free the brake from the wheel when released fromthe air or other pressure, as by the proper manipulation of the valve E.

The rim 1" of the wheel 0 may be suitably insulated from the body 1*, asindicated for example by heavy lines in Fig. 3, and there may be acollector ring 1 on the car axle connected by insulated conductor withthe rim of the wheel. The brake shoe S and cylinder P may be insulatedfrom other metal parts of the car in any suitable way, and the airpiping may be insulated by using a rubber hose connection therein at asuitable point.

Although I have spoken of the wheel 0 as having a bearing face of convexcross-section, I do not intend by that expression to limit myself to astrictly rounded convexity, for I may use a wheel with a relativelysharp bearing face, instead of a rounded cutting edge, as indicated inthe edge view (Fig. 5), but such a wheel has a substantially convexcross-section. I prefer the form shown in Figs. 2 and 3, however, asthat is better adapted for use in conjunction with the retarding meansto force the ice and sleet off the rail, and also because such a wheelis better adapted to be used as a collector wheel to carry current tothe motors and other devices on the cars, if it be desired to use it inthat way. It is also an advantage to employ the retarding means inconnection with the wheel, when used for contact purposes, for by thatmeans a scraping contact of moderate but sufficient effect can besecured. If the wheel is to be used for ice-cutting purposes only, itmay be further modified by constructing its periphery with corrugationsor teeth w, as shown in Fig. 6. In this modification the brake shoe maybe applied to the side face or faces of the wheel, as indicated bydotted lines S I claim as my invention 7 1. An electric railway car,provided with an electric contact ice-cutting wheel adapted to bear uponthe third rail having its bearing surface formed tocut the ice on therail and electric connections therefor, said wheel constituting thejsoleelectric contact member for said third rail.

2;. An electric railway car, provided with an ice-cutting and contactwheel having a bearing face of rounded convex crosssection and: adaptedto bear upon the third rail.

SI An electric railway car, provided with an ice-cutting wheel adaptedto bear upon the third rail in combination with means to retard therotation of the wheel, the rim of the wheelbeing insulated from the car,and with electrical connections.

4. An electrical railway car, provided with an ice-cutting wheel havinga bearing face of rounded convex cross-section, and adapted to bear uponthe third rail in combination with means to retard the rotation of thewheel.

5. An electric railway car, provided with an ice-crushin and contactwheel having a bearing face of rounded convex cross-section and adaptedto bear upon the third rail.

6. An electric railway car, provided with an ice-cutting wheel adaptedto bear upon the third rail and having a bearing face of rounded convexcross-section in. combination with a brake adapted to bear upon thewheel, and means to apply and release the brake.

7. An electric railway car, provided with an ice-cutting wheel adaptedto bear upon the third rail in combination with a brake adapted to bearupon the wheel; and fluid pressure means to apply the brake.

8. An electric railway car, provided with an ice-cutting wheel adaptedto bear upon the third rail in combination with a, brake adapted to bearupon said wheel, and means under the control of theengineer to thebrakes. i

9. An electric car, provided with an icecrushing and contact wheeladapted tobear on the third rail in combination with a brake shoe andmeans for applying the shoe to the wheel at a point diametricallyopposite that at which the wheel bears on the rail and electricalconnections to the wheel.

10. An electric car, provided with a contact and ice-crushing wheeladapted tobear on the third rail in combination with means to modify thenatural rotation of the wheel and electrical connections therefor.

11. An electric car, provided with a contact and ice-crushing wheel.adapted to bear on the third rail in combination with means toretard therotation of the wheel and elec trical connections therefor.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in, thepresence oftwo subscribing witnesses,

FRANK E KINSMAN. Witnesses:

FRANK A. BUTLER, H RB T HORTON.

